


fool around

by owlsshadows



Series: causes of ennoshita's premature hair loss [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background TsukiHina - Freeform, First Kiss, Hand Jobs, Locker Room, Love Confessions, M/M, Meet the Family, Switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 10:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20190769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlsshadows/pseuds/owlsshadows
Summary: "I barely did a thing high schoolers usually do. I never cheated on a test or copied homework from others. I didn’t have a high school romance and I didn’t walk home together with someone... I will graduate, Tanaka. I will graduate in no time, and I never fooled around properly.”There are so many things Ryuu could say to that: even if Daichi never did any of the things he listed, he won Nationals and he still has a few weeks left from high school that he can use to do all these things... but his brain stops at the thought that Daichi will graduate. In the near future. Leaving Ryuu behind.“Want to fool around?” Ryuu asks, gulping visibly.In which Daichi has an existential crisis, Ryuu makes a bold move and Ennoshita gets one more thing to blame his premature hair loss on.





	fool around

**Author's Note:**

> I owe my soul to Nana, the hero of my life, best beta and pocket muffin~
> 
> Also, big big thanks for MJ for checking the beginning of the fic!!!

_ you smell like axe, bashfulness and the end of an era _

The excited chatter dies in the corridor as the last of the team leaves, dragging their tired feet through the Tokyo Gymnasium one last time. Coach Ukai gave them two hours of free time after the award ceremony to wander, to make some memories before they leave for the bus to take them back to their guesthouse.

Ryuu is late and left behind because while everyone else changed and showered, he totally forgot he had stuff to do, losing himself in the retelling of Noyassan’s most amazing moves and Hinata’s killer last spike. He is, to his surprise, however, not alone: as he walks back to his locker, towel drying his hair after a shower, he finds Daichi-san sitting on a bench, staring off into the void.

“You’re still here too, Dai-san?” he asks, opening his locker.

“Hn.”

“Did you wait for me?” Ryuu glances back over his shoulder as he sprays deodorant all over his torso. “Please tell me you didn’t waste your precious free time on me.”

“Hn,” Daichi says, distant.

When he gets no further reply or explanation, Ryuu sends another, scrutinizing look at his captain. If anything, Daichi seems empty: the happiness from winning Nationals no longer radiates from within, as if he washed it off with the shower. He stares at a nondescript point on the wall, mouth slightly open in a half-frown.

“What is it, Daichi-san? You seem to be bothered by something,” Ryuu asks, biting down on his lower lip.

There’s a long pause in response, before Daichi-san finally lifts his eyes from the wall, only to look at a point by Ryuu’s shoulder instead.

“It’s just… this was our last match,” he says. “This was the last stage of my high school volleyball career. I… I still can’t comprehend that… it’s over.”

Ryuu wavers before abandoning his locker with his T-shirt in hand to step closer to his captain.

“I always said that I would take this team to Nationals, but actually doing it felt like a hard to attain dream.”

“We made it, Dai-san.”

“It took me three years,” Daichi snorts. His eyes don’t quite meet Ryuu’s. “I spent my whole high school life playing volleyball, and don't get me wrong, I don’t regret one bit of it. But now that it’s over, I feel… empty. As if there has been nothing apart from volleyball for me here. I imagine looking back on these three years wondering, what have I been doing? I barely did a thing high schoolers usually do. I never cheated on a test or copied homework from others. I didn’t have a high school romance and I didn’t walk home together with someone. I never did anything rebellious, never tried smoking, drugs… I’ve never even seen a high school gang, are those things even real?”

“People always mistake me for a gangster, so they must be,” Ryuu murmurs, but his words don’t reach Daichi, who continues unfazed.

“I haven't tried all the flavors of coffee in the vending machine or the limited yakisoba bread at the cafeteria. I never even skipped class or pretended to be sick…”

“Dai-san…”

“I will graduate, Tanaka.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Ryuu scratches the back of his head uncomfortably.  _ I don’t like it, please don’t remind me of it _ , he adds to himself.

“I will graduate in no time, and I never fooled around properly.”

There are so many things Ryuu could say to that: even if Daichi never did any of the things he listed, he won Nationals and he still has a few weeks left from high school that he can use to do all these things (apart from drugs, and the gang; Ryuu would feel really bad for those hooligans if Daichi joined them)... but his brain stops at the thought that Daichi will graduate. In the near future. Leaving Ryuu behind.

“Want to fool around?” Ryuu asks, gulping visibly.

Daichi jolts, stare dropping to Ryuu’s naked torso. He blinks, as if someone just pulled him back in focus, and his gaze intensifies. Like a hot rock rolled over his skin, Ryuu can feel the weight of Daichi’s eyes inching upwards from his hipbone to his collar bones, lingering around his shoulders.

Ryuu’s breath hitches, a sudden chill running down his spine. The weight of his own question suddenly weighs on him differently; it changes color and gains taste – from fresh white linen cloth it turns to a deep red silk shawl with the aroma of dark cherries and a coppery taste against Ryuu’s tongue.

On second thought, he may have bitten his lip.

Daichi breaks the silence with a laugh equal parts joyful and sad.

“I don’t even know how to do that,” he says, and finally his eyes meet Ryuu’s. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“We could start here,” Ryuu says, T-shirt crumpling in his hand as he squeezes it nervously. “We could… fool around.”

Daichi blinks, slowly, his beautiful brown eyes trained at Ryuu directly, reading him like a book.

“How?” he asks, forcing Ryuu to gulp again.

“Say… have you kissed before?”

Daichi raises a brow. However, contrary to Ryuu’s expectations, he seemed curious rather than annoyed. “Have you?”

“I…” Ryuu starts, throat going dry quickly under the weight of Daichi’s stare. “I practiced with Noyassan before.”

“Ooh,” Daichi-san tips his chin up, looking at Ryuu from an angle. “Is that so?”

“Well…” Ryuu’s T-shirt squeezes thin under his grip.

Daichi seizes Ryuu’s jeans by the pocket, pulling him close until their knees bump. “So you've never had a real kiss either?”

“It was real…”

“You just said it was practice.”

“But it was on the lips!” Ryuu fights back.

“It’s not real if you do it for practice,” Daichi says, hooking his fingers deeper into Ryuu’s pocket to get a stronger hold of him. “I found it strange that you brought up kissing right after I said I never fooled around before, even though I didn’t mention anything about kissing in particular…”

“You said…” Ryuu starts, a knot in his throat burdening him in his speech, “you said something about a high school romance.”

“Did you want to kiss me, Tanaka?”

“Dai-san!”

“Hn?”

“… Is it wrong of me to want to kiss you?”

“Well,” Daichi turns his head looking at the open front door of the locker room. “I had something more innocent in mind, but you’re right… if I were to fool around, I should do it properly.”

Ryuu gulps. The knot in his throat doesn’t budge; his body, on the other hand, awakens. A tremble runs down his spine, and a bulge grows in his pants – Daich, sitting on the bench and facing it directly, must notice it too. Yet, if he notices, it doesn’t show. He is pulling his fingers out of Ryuu’s pocket with an expressionless face, grazing the skin through the fabric in a way that has Ryuu seeing stars.

“Lock the door,” Daichi instructs.

Ryuu’s heart jumps up his throat to sit beside the knot that makes him mute, only able to nod before he walks up to the door, closing it.

“There’s… no key,” he mutters.

“Right. Suga must have taken it back to the organizers already,” Daichi muses, moving slightly on the bench. “Makes it all the better for fooling around.”

“What do you have in mind, Dai-san?”

“You asked for a kiss? For starters,” Daichi replies, waving Ryuu closer. This time, he hooks his fingers in the belt loops on both sides of Ryuu’s pants and pulls him so incredibly close Ryuu’s legs press closely against his knees.

Ryuu holds his breath as Daichi tips his head backwards, beckoning him to kiss him. “What? Afraid?”

“Never,” Ryuu protests, blush spreading on his face, and leans down with vigor. He still hesitates over the last few centimeters, lips hovering over his captain’s. Daichi’s short chuckle gets caught in the space between them, warm breath washing over Ryuu’s face, before he tips his head further, closing the distance between them.

Their kiss starts out slow and chaste, barely a touch of lips, and Ryuu freezes over the moment they make contact. They're barely doing anything, yet it feels so different from anything he has ever done with Noya – mostly because even if they were French kissing, with Noya everything quickly turned grotesque. There was teeth, way too much teeth, and hands at all the wrong places, trying to poke Ryuu’s eyes out or tear his ears off in the name of pretend-passion. Daichi in comparison is mellow, his lips move slowly against his skin, pressing in soft and almost lazy. It riles Ryuu up, because he wants more, he wants to deepen it, to have his mouth all over Daichi’s, his tongue interlaced with his in a fiery dance. He sighs, opening his lips up, and Daichi meets him there as if he could read his mind, tongue darting out to explore the insides of Ryuu’s mouth.

_ Either, he said _ , Ryuu wonders as foreign fingers crawl up his sides, grab onto his ribs and pull him down onto Daichi’s lap. He obeys, seating himself on top of Daichi, and shivers as he feels Daichi’s erection under him. Daichi gives out a deep, shuddery breath, but he never quite breaks the contact, tongue gliding over Ryuu’s lower lip, coercing him into angling his head for him.

_ Never had a real kiss  _ ** _either_ ** _ , he said. _

Ryuu drops his T-shirt.

“You’re a liar, Dai-san,” he whispers once Daichi breaks away.

“How so?”

“You said… what did you say again? Something about real kisses…”

“Are you not satisfied with your kiss?” Daichi asks.

Ryuu cups his face, sinking his fingers in the thick dark hair behind Daichi’s ear. “It was a prime kiss,” he says. “But I doubt you could repeat it.”

“You doubt?” Daichi’s hands caress Ryuu’s bare skin up his sides and to his back, flattening over his shoulder blades. “Does this mean you want seconds?”

Ryuu leans down, pressing his lips to Daichi’s in reply. This time Daichi lets him explore for a second before he takes the lead, deepening their kiss, turning Ryuu into a pile of goo. He slides his tongue over the top of Ryuu’s mouth, traces his sharp teeth, plays with his tongue. He breaks the kiss when he notices that Ryuu had stopped breathing. Fingers fasten in his hair as soon as he releases Ryuu, and Ryuu dips his head down, chasing after Daichi’s lips fervently.

Daichi reaches a hand out, gently pushing Ryuu’s face to the side, and kisses the skin below his ear. “Breathe,” he whispers, tracing the lobe of Ryuu’s ear, tugging at it softly with his teeth. “You can’t keep kissing for this long unless you breathe, dummy.”

Ryuu directs his complaint to the ceiling, clearly expecting the deity of stinky locker rooms and obnoxious cologne to take pity on him. The deity seems ruthless, for Daichi’s kisses hit a soft spot, and Ryuu cannot stifle the moan breaking from his throat.

He squirms in Daichi’s lap and the friction sends shivers down his spine. Daichi chases after the sensation and rubs against him, which sends Ryuu trembling, forcing him to push down on Daichi’s hips harder than intended.

“Ahh,” his captain heaves for air, lips pressing up against Ryuu's throat. “You feel so good, Tanaka, I might just come from you sitting in my lap.”

“Feel free, Dai-san,” he growls in reply, and he steadies himself with a hand on Daichi’s shoulder. His breath comes quick and shallow; his voice is heavy and deep like poisoned honey. His heart plays its own instrumental solo in his ears. He grinds down on Daichi’s dick again, eliciting a high pitched whine from his captain.

“Shit,” Daichi heaves, pressing a quick kiss down Ryuu’s pulse. “Wait.”

Ryuu wouldn’t be Ryuu if he waited; his hips roll again, his hands run through Daichi’s hair, his lips litter light kisses along Daichi’s hairline, urging him for more.

In response, Daichi solidifies his hold on his back, while his free hand roams down between them to Ryuu’s fly, unzipping it and unveiling his hard cock.

“Ho–hold on Dai-san,” Ryuu says, suddenly bashful.

Daichi laughs darkly, his hand running low and under, pushing Ryuu further down his thighs to find enough space to free his own aching dick. “Sorry about this,” he says, lining their members up. “I can barely hold on as it is. Help me?”

“Ye–yeah,” Ryuu breathes. He untangles his hand from Daichi’s hair, bringing it atop his chest.

“Do you plan to play there?” Daichi asks curtly. His eyes meet Ryuu’s confused frown. “I meant the nipples.” Ryuu makes a scandalized sound, which entertains Daichi. He presses a quick kiss on that dumb face before he drags Ryuu’s hand down. “Maybe another time,” he adds, folding Ryuu’s hand around their dicks. “I’m too pent up and I don’t want to come without you. Have you done anything like this before?”

“Not… Only to myself,” Ryuu says, face flushed.

“Hn,” Daichi replies, kissing him softly. “Me neither.”

The first stroke comes clumsy, but they are beyond the point where awkwardness would hit them hard – both far too eager to chase the sensation and too desperate for relief to pay attention to anything else. Daichi takes it upon himself to guide Ryuu’s hand up and down their shafts, dictating a slow, yet cruelly practical tempo. There is nothing sweet in the way they pump each other now, just the overwhelming need to reach even further. If anything, Daichi is extremely efficient – where Ryuu’s hand fumbles and slips off track sometimes, Daichi holds them together with his warm hand slick with pre-cum. Their kisses shorten in between ragged breaths, caresses become pecks and suckles become nips.

“Haah. Shit,” Daichi murmurs, his voice raspy in Ryuu’s ear. His thumb encircles Ryuu’s tip, dragging his hand down firmly. Ryuu leans into the touch, arching his back under Daichi’s palm; his grip on Daichi’s shoulder tightens as he finds it harder and harder to keep himself seated, his hips aching for more friction and faster release.

“Dai-san,” Ryuu hisses, before Daichi leans in and captures his lips with his own. He mumbles “I’m almost there” against the skin of Daichi’s chin.

Daichi trains his eyes on him, and Ryuu closes his lids – out of embarrassment, but also because the whole world is red and everything pulsates around him. His sole focus becomes the touch of his captain, the gentle but firm hand holding him in place, the almost rough strokes down his member, the lips that reach for his fervently. It’s when Daichi’s fingers push into the tired muscles of Ryuu’s back that Ryuu's resistance breaks, his back arches into a bow and he comes all over his own stomach.

Daichi gives out a deep, guttural sound, Ryuu would call it a laugh if it didn’t sound so corrupted, and he slots their mouths together. Ryuu returns the kiss, sucking on Daichi’s tongue as he pumps down Daichi’s cock in earnest, and Daichi doesn’t last long, moaning into Ryuu’s mouth as he comes. It splatters against Ryuu’s chest, dripping down on their hands.

“I’m sorry,” Daichi murmurs afterward, burying his labored breaths in Ryuu’s clavicle.

“Don’t,” Ryuu says, leaning his head on Daichi’s and pressing a soft kiss on his captain’s temple.

They stay like this for a while; seconds, maybe even minutes pass. Ryuu loses his sense of time, only aware of the body under him, the hot breathe washing over his shoulder and the lush hair tickling his neck. The air smells thick with musk, sweat, deodorant and sports cream, and Ryuu scrunches up his nose. He turns, stealing a sniff of Daichi’s hair, still slightly damp from his shower, smelling like the family sized shampoo from the supermarket. It’s a nice, familiar scent. Too weak to overpower the odor that comes with a group of sports-maniac teenagers, but just enough to erase all Ryuu's discomfort.

“Good job,” Daichi says after a while, lifting his head to press a short kiss on Ryuu’s lips. “You’re amazing.”

If Ryuu hadn’t just come, he would probably come again; he feels his flaccid dick reacting to the praise. “Dai-san…” he starts, but he has nothing to say. His brain stopped functioning back when Daichi-san ordered him to lock the door and his thoughts have still not caught up with everything that had just happened. He reaches out, entwining his cum-covered fingers with his captain’s. It’s the grossest, yet sweetest thing he has ever done.

Daichi smiles at his gesture, running his thumb over the back of Ryuu’s hand. “We need to clean up,” he says.

“Can’t… can’t we stay like this just a little longer?” Ryuu catches himself begging.

“Did you forget that we are still in the locker room?” Daichi laughs. “If Suga returned the keys, it’s only a matter of time someone from the cleaning crew appears.”

“But…” Ryuu protests.

“Look at the time,” Daichi nods at the clock on the wall behind Ryuu, “it’s almost six.”

“Six?!” Ryuu hollers, unbelieving. “We won’t be able to see all the stands!”

“Are you sure that should be your biggest concern right now?” Daichi asks.

Ryuu blinks, face reddening immediately.

“Look at the mess I’ve gotten on you,” Daichi continues, tracing patterns over the cum on Ryuu’s chest.

“It was a joint effort,” Ryuu replies, eliciting a snort from Daichi.

“Go, wash up,” his captain nods.

“Ossu,” Ryuu shrugs. He stands, walks to his locker and fishes out a packet of tissues from his bag. “Dai-san, you may need these?” he offers.

“Thanks, Tanaka,” Daichi receives it. “You will need something more than that though.”

“I’m off, I’m off,” Ryuu nods along, strolling to the door separating the lockers from the washrooms. With his hand on the frame, however, he turns back one last time. “Dai-san,” he starts, a blush spreading rapidly on his face, “did you um… like… fooling around?”

Daichi looks at him with his beautiful brown eyes blown wide in surprise. He nods, little rigidly, as a robot who needs oiling.

“If you did,” Ryuu continues, fingers crawling up the edge of the doorframe nervously, “would you mind um… if we… um. Did it again?“

_ you smell like shampoo, regret, and promises that were never kept _

Daichi doesn’t know why he had said yes. But then again, he doesn’t know why he had allowed that thing to happen with Tanaka in the first place. Or rather, he knows all too well, and he is reluctant to admit that he, Sawamura Daichi, is a hormonal teen after all.

The view of Tanaka’s naked body has always attracted his attention more than it should have, the second-year didn’t make it easier with his frequent celebratory stripping, either. Daichi had always wanted to touch that body, to rake his hands over tanned skin and lean muscle, to ruffle Tanaka’s buzzcut and kiss a trail from his nape to his tailbone. But Daichi was first the captain of the volleyball club – his sense of responsibility had forbid him from following his raw instincts. 

He knows all too well why he let the whole thing happen back in that locker room in Tokyo. The goal he aimed for had been accomplished; the weight he carried along the way lifted off his shoulders. He stopped being Sawamura Daichi, wing spiker, captain of the Karasuno Volleyball Club. Back in that locker room, he was nothing but himself for the first time in almost three years. Without the responsibilities tying him to the club, his restraints were lifted. Without his self-imposed restrictions, he found himself slipping.

But also, Tanaka wanted to kiss him, and Daichi had fallen harder than ever for him after the match against Inarizaki. When Tanaka asked whether he wanted to fool around, he had no strength to refuse.

How the whole situation spiraled out of his control, he is not entirely sure. One moment Tanaka pulled him behind the storeroom door to kiss him on the occasion of his official retirement from the club. The next, he found himself in a convenience store, browsing through their selection of condoms and lube still wearing his uniform like some kind of delinquent.

That was ten days ago, and in the past ten days he fucked Tanaka eight times. 

“Dai-sa–agh,” Tanaka moans, and his lids stutter closed as he comes violently. 

Daichi follows suit just as fast, stimulated by Tanaka convulsing around him. 

In the aftermath of his orgasm, Daichi leans down, pressing a long kiss over Tanaka's nape, soaking in his scent.

It is definitely not the high school romance he had imagined or had been telling Tanaka about wanting to experience before their ill-fated makeout session back in that locker room. He is not even sure if this can be called a romance at all. They attend school as normal, without as much as visiting each other in their classrooms. Daichi waits in the library for Tanaka to finish volleyball practice. They head home together. Tanaka’s sister works afternoon shifts, arriving home late, leaving them ample time to fool around.

The system is impeccable.

The execution – not so much.

The first time Tanaka proposed the arrangement, Daichi felt a tremble in his chest. It was a simple invitation after practice, if Daichi was already planning to spend a few hours at the library, he really didn’t have to go out of his way to wait for Tanaka. The whole proposal was so thoughtful. Tactful. So not what Daichi had gotten used to when it comes to Tanaka.

Then Tanaka glanced at Daichi from under his straight line of lashes, and uttered the words that made Daichi’s world crumble down on its foundations.

_ “Would you like to come over, Dai-san? My sister won’t be home.” _

Daichi still doesn’t know why he had said yes. Back then his entire being was screaming for clarifications, but Tanaka’s kiss was soft and sweet, and Tanaka smiled at him when they met at the school gate, and the back of their hands brushed together as they walked down to the station.

Daichi wanted to confess. To clarify, that for him, this is not simply fooling around.

Instead, he pulled Tanaka under a roof when rain started to pour, and kissed him fervently, forgoing all sense or moral.

Instead, he took Tanaka to the convenience store and exchanged hushed words with him on his preference for lube.

Instead, he fucked Tanaka into the mattress, carefully avoiding looking at the big breasted gravure poster above his bed.

Daichi gives out a pained grumble, voice muffled by the skin under his lips.

“Hn?” Tanaka hums now, hand reaching out and finding his to interlink their fingers.

“Hn,” Daichi hums back, pressing another kiss down onto Tanaka’s nape. He pulls out of him, rolling to the side to leave space for Tanaka to breathe.

“You could stay,” Tanaka says, thumb caressing his knuckles.

“No, you should stay,” Daichi replies, collecting his breath. “Let me clean you up.”

“No, Dai-san, that’s really not necessary,” Tanaka replies, a bashful blush creeping onto his face.

Daichi can’t resist the urge to plant a kiss on his cheek.

“But I want to.”

There. In the aftermath of their lovemaking, he is able to make selfish requests. So why can’t he be honest on their way to the house? Why can’t he face Tanaka during school hours? Why can’t he clarify things?

He is almost certain that Tanaka has feelings for him, too; he had not pinned him for someone who would really do something like fooling around. No. Tanaka is a serious guy, honest to boot, someone who professes his love and courts with his cards open.

Daichi, as much as he wants to deny it, knows why he agreed to Tanaka’s suggestion to fool around. He knows why he eased into the arrangement Tanaka proposed.

But he has no idea what went down in Tanaka’s head, proposing the thing in the first place. Why did he decide to restrict their relationship to “fooling around”?

Daichi knows that he is a coward.

He wants to change it.

But just as yesterday, or the day before, he keeps touching Tanaka without actually confessing his feelings, hoping that gentle fingers can replace the words he can’t quite find.

“Tanaka,” he says once they are both dressed and he has helped the second-year with his maths homework.

“Hn?” Tanaka asks back, balancing his pencil above his lips, eyes not leaving his literature assignment, even though Daichi suspects it has more to do with the blush that never quite left his ears than the fact that he wanted to focus on his studies so much.

“I should leave soon. I still have somewhere to go before home, and I don’t want to be too late.”

“I see,” the boy says, tone neutral – the only indication that Daichi’s message left any effect on him is the slight slouching of his shoulders. “I’m almost done with this, do you want me to accompany you to the door?”

Daichi takes a glance between the empty workbook and Tanaka, who still hasn’t lifted his glance. “I know my way,” he murmurs, shaking his head. “Sure you don’t need help with literature? You can always leave me a message when you get stuck.”

“Thanks, Dai-san,” Tanaka lifts his head finally, stormy grey eyes strained on Daichi head on. “I can manage.”

Daichi huffs shortly, leaning down for a goodbye kiss. 

“Right,” he says, then gives Tanaka an other, quick peck on the lips. “You can do it if you try.”

Tanaka chuckles, eyes thinning into a line with his smile.

“Sometimes I’m not sure whether you compliment or insult me.”

“Do I look like someone who would insult anyone?” 

“Absolutely.”

“Well. Good to know,” Daichi snorts, lifting his bag off the floor and walking to the door. “See you tomorrow?”

“At the school gates? After practice?” Tanaka asks back, almost reflexively. His eyes are back on his workbook, staring at the letters as if he wished they would all just disappear along his task to complete his homework.

“I was thinking,” Daichi starts, grip tightening around the strap of his bag, “maybe we could have lunch together?”

Tanaka places his pencil down on the paper, lifting his head ever so slightly. “Oh?”

“We don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Daichi backtracks, cursing himself for his cowardice.

“No,” Tanaka shakes his head. “That sounds… nice. See you at lunch break, then.”

“Yeah.”

Daichi turns on his heels quickly, and descends the stairs before Tanaka could catch a glimpse of his burning red face again. His heart beats in his chest faster than the Shinkansen, his blood drums in his veins like crazy, making his limbs tremble. He fumbles a bit with his shoelaces, struggles with his coat, gets tangled in his scarf.

On his way down the hill, he nearly drops his phone three times before he can actually enter the correct call. The phone rings out once, twice before a silent click marks the beginning of the conversation.

“Daichi-san,” comes the calm, though surprised voice of Ennoshita. “How rare for you to call. What can I help you with?”

“I need to discuss something… personal,” Daichi says, puffing clouds into the cold air around him. “Can you meet me at the station real quick, I will buy you something.”

“Free food, huh?” Ennoshita hums on the other end of the call. “You remember what my favourite food was?”

Daichi scrunches up his nose. “Hamburgers?”

“Ding! Wrong,” Ennoshita laughs. “But I will settle for burgers. I can get to the station in… fifteen minutes. Is that good?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Ennoshita.”

“Anytime, Daichi-san,” Ennoshita says. “You baited me with food, after all.”

Daichi laughs shortly, his nerves making it impossible to actually enjoy the conversation, then hangs up and sinks his phone in his coat pocket.

He feels bad, asking advice from a second year. But he is not willing to discuss his love life with a horrible enabler like Suga, and telling Asahi a story like his would certainly cause a mental breakdown for the glass-hearted beardy. Kiyoko and Yui are also out of the question, for other considerations. This leaves Daichi with a few of his classmates he tends to hang out with, but doesn’t really trust… and Karasuno’s new captain, Ennoshita.

Ennoshita is intelligent, logical and observant – Daichi wouldn’t be surprised if he had already caught onto something. He had not visited practice since he officially left the club, but he can’t believe that Tanaka wouldn’t have at least once done or said something telltale.

Still, when he arrives at the station and ushers Ennoshita into a booth in one of the local burger chain restaurants, the new captain starts with:

“Do you feel this restless about my captaincy, that you had to ask me out like this? I swear I’m not turning them all into gluttons. In fact, I doubt I could turn Tsukishima into a glutton, no matter how hard I tried.”

“No, no!” Daichi raises his hands, then, with the same movement, buries his face in them. “I told you it’s… personal.”

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t believe you. It was just so uncharacteristic…”

Ennoshita laughs in embarrassment, scratching his face with that absent-minded touch he usually does when he feels inadequate – like the first time Daichi had sat down with him to share tips and tricks on captainly tasks, or when the third years retired and the team all cheered him for his new role.

Daichi feels immense guilt at calling him out this evening, especially since what he wants to talk about is not something Ennoshita probably wants to hear. He clears his throat and gulps down half his cup of water before he starts.

“Ennoshita, do you know what Tanaka is up to these days?” 

“Tanaka?” Ennoshita raises a brow.

There goes Daichi’s assumption that Tanaka would behave suspiciously.

“Yeah. I mean, has he been any different from usual since we returned from Nationals?”

“Nah, I mean, we’re talking about Tanaka here,” Ennoshita says, mild confusion on his features. “He is hard-working but loud as usual. Oh. Probably he has been stripping less lately? He learns.”

_ Or he tries to hide hickeys, _ Daichi thinks.

“Ennoshita, I would like to apologize beforehand for whatever I am about to tell you,” he says then, raising his hands to his chin and cupping it, as if it could make his hands tremble less.

“Daichi-san, you're making me nervous, what is this about? Is there something wrong with Tanaka? Is he hiding something from the team? Is it his health?”

“No. And yes. Kinda.”

“Which one?”

“Tanaka and I… ugh. Since Nationals. We’ve been kind of… fooling around, I guess?”

“You’ve been doing what?!” Ennoshita asks, manners forgotten. Somehow, however, he manages to keep his voice down, even if his eyes turn round like a saucepan. “What does fooling around means, did you do anything illegal? Is he in trouble?”

“We had sex, Ennoshita. Lots of sex.”

To this, Ennoshita’s face goes blank, staring at the buzzer in his hands that has still not gone off to signal when their food is ready.

“It was all my fault, I had an existential crisis of kinds after winning Nationals and I told him that I felt like I missed so much from my high school life, and... “

“Senpai,” Ennoshita starts. His knuckles whiten around the buzzer. “Can you please spare me the details and just tell me why you asked me to come here today?”

“I love Tanaka,” Daichi says, and as soon as the words leave his lips, he realizes he had never said them out loud before. This newfound revelation seems to give him enough power to finally collect his thoughts, he even manages to stop his hands from trembling. “I want to date Tanaka. I want to tell him how much I love him, and take him on amazing dates to sweep him off his feet, and spoil him rotten because he deserves the absolute best… but all I seem to be doing is following this vicious spiral of meeting up with him after school and–”

“I get the picture,” Ennoshita cuts in. “But I don’t quite understand the problem. Tanaka doesn’t seem to be a person who would as much as hold hands with anyone but the one he loves, so doesn’t your… development means that he requites your feelings?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” Daichi shakes his head. “And I’m going mad because he offered to fool around with me and I was stupid enough to say yes and now we are in this ambiguous relationship where I want to let him know that I cherish him, but it seems that I can’t come clean, and every time I try it just gets worse.”

“How?” The way Ennoshita asks it is almost flippant, and a vein seems to be popping on his forehead.

“Are you by chance angry with me for some reason?” Daichi asks before he could stop himself.

“Truthfully? I might be,” Ennoshita shrugs, easing his grip around the buzzer that starts beeping. “Tanaka is a pure kid. I don’t know what you did to corrupt him into offering to fool around with you, but this whole thing seems crazy. If you excuse me, I’ll grab our food.”

“Yeah,” Daichi shrugs, burying his face in his hands.

He knows it’s all rotten, but it is his paradise, and he is so afraid to let it go… he sought Ennoshita out to ask him for his opinion on how to ask Tanaka out properly; he could have done it without traumatizing the second-year with the details of their get-together, but… his head keeps spinning, thoughts he had always thought useless roaming around like a bunch of kites tangled in the sky on a windy day.

“Alright,” Ennoshita smashes the tray down before him on the table, and the juicy smell of fresh hamburgers ease Daichi’s headache for a second. “Out with the dirty details. Anything that could help us understand why Tanaka would do something like this. I’m willing to not judge you on your actions for the next… twenty minutes or so.”

“He asked me if I’d kissed before. I asked him if he wanted to kiss me,” Daichi gestures with his hand vaguely, shrugs. “It all spiraled out of control so fast I could barely follow it. Next moment I knew, I was sitting on his bed on the day of the third years' retirement, pulling my socks on after I… after we… ugh.”

Ennoshita winces. His voice, however, is emotionless when he speaks.

“How did Tanaka behave, back in Tokyo?”

“C–cute. Eager. Desperate.”

“Did you mention to him, at any point before your hook-up, that you would be graduating soon?” Ennoshita continues with his interrogation. His question is sharp, its edge cuts deeply.

“I did. Of course, I did. I had an entire monologue there about how little time I have left.”

“Hn.” Ennoshita purses his lips. “And how did Tanaka react… when you showed interest in his proposition?”

Daichi gulps, recalling Tanaka’s soft sighs, his violent blush, him begging for closure after they had come together.

“Damn… it was me, wasn’t it?” he leans down, forehead against the table.

“Your hair is in my fries,” Ennoshita replies, pulling the tray over. “Also, I can’t read minds, Daichi-san, so it would be best if you shared your thoughts. Not that I’m too keen to listen. Especially not the details. I know it might be easy for you to say things now that you no longer have to see my face every day, but Tanaka is still my teammate. I don’t think I could look him in the eye if you told me stuff about… your sex life.  _ Lots  _ was traumatizing enough.”

“I think… I was not romantic enough,” Daichi says to the table. “I probably made Tanaka think that I was really only wanting to fool around.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m a horrible person,” he grumbles.

“I wouldn’t call you horrible,” Ennoshita replies. “But rather, terribly inexperienced and horny? Bad combo.”

“Are you sure this is the tone you should be using with your senpai?”

“You’re not acting your part, Daichi-san. If you were the Daichi-san I knew, of course, I would be more gentle with your ego, but in your current state, you totally deserve all the roasting.”

“You spend too much time with Futakuchi.”

“I know,” Ennoshita replies. “But he is so damn good at blowjobs.”

Daichi lifts his head so fast his neck cracks. “What?” he is so much worse at keeping his voice low, too.

“Just kidding,” Ennoshita smiles, pulling his lips wide in a move that sends chills down Daichi’s spine. Spending time with Shirabu, and consequently seeing Tendou more than twice a year, has also seemed to rub off on Ennoshita in the worst possible way. “I’m not fooling around with Kenji, I don’t have a suicide wish. Back to your problem, though. You’re not a horrible person, you had only good intentions, I believe? But Tanaka was stupid and he threw away his pride and you took your chance.”

“How do I redo it?” Daichi asks, not contesting Ennoshita’s words.

“Easy,” says the second-year, licking the last of the burger sauce off his fingers. “You ask him out. Old fashioned. No subtle hints, just a raw and straightforward love confession. I know you can do it, senpai; after all, you are one of the most frank and outspoken people I know.”

“Thanks.”

“So?” Ennoshita asks, slurping Daichi’s milkshake. “Will you? Ask him out I mean.”

“I… I asked him to eat lunch together tomorrow.” 

Ennoshita gives him a long, scrutinizing look, as if he was measuring Daichi’s worth. Finally, he smiles. “If you need a place where no one will disturb you, there is a bench between the exit next to the biology classroom and the tennis courts, which is hidden by some bushes.”

“Thanks,” Daichi replies.

He doesn’t question a word Ennoshita says. He doesn’t even fight for his milkshake. He just lets it all happen, flow over him like a landslide. He has a night and a morning to dig himself out from the mud.

_ you smell like sweat and at this point i've grown fond of it _

Ryuu would’ve been fine with just fooling around. 

He had been in love with Dai-san for the longest of times; to be precise, at least twenty minutes longer than he had been in love with Kiyoko-san. But just as he had admired Kiyoko-san from afar, he had had feelings for Dai-san and never wanted anything in return.

Until Nationals were over and Dai-san said he wanted to fool around.

It stung a little, because Dai-san had been gentle. Apart from that very first time, when they were all clumsy and eager, Dai-san took his time exploring Ryuu’s body, finding out about his soft spots and preparing him well. Ryuu wished Dai-san would be less considerate, because on days when the winds blew exceptionally hard and cold Dai-san would offer Ryuu his gloves, and they would fit a little loose, but they would be warm, and Ryuu would rather hold those hands than feel their shadow on his skin.

Still, Ryuu would have been good remaining in that ambiguous bubble where Dai-san was always at arm’s length, because he could keep the illusion that he was within reach. He doubted that Dai-san would want to keep up this arrangement after he graduated. Until then, Ryuu was more than willing to bend under his hands.

But Dai-san… he… he made it all confusing night before when he asked, in a tone that sounded way too pained, whether Tanaka would like to eat lunch with him today.

_ We don’t have to, if you don’t want to _ , Dai-san had said.

Really… Ryuu would have been fine with just fooling around. But now that Dai-san had given him hope, Ryuu aches for it to be more than just a fling. More than just high school memories Daichi can look back on.

*

Daichi had messaged him earlier in the day –  _ his first good morning message, _ Ryuu thinks to himself, heart squeezing – and told Ryuu that he will come and pick him up from his classroom at the beginning of lunch break.

The bell he had been waiting for all day finds Ryuu stretching in his chair, vibrating with excitement. By nature, he is not impatient; still, he can barely keep in his seat, waiting for Daichi. He has nothing much to do: look out the window to check the weather – a little cloudy but otherwise nice, watch his classmates leave the room, stare at the clock on the wall. His heartbeat echoes in his ears, his fingers run through his buzz cut; he tries, but he can’t hide his thrill.

“Tanaka,” a classmate of his calls. “Someone’s here to see you.”

Ryuu can’t decide whether he feels relief or surprise – he has been waiting eagerly; nevertheless, he feels unprepared. He turns his head with wildly beating heart, following where the glasses girl points. Beside the wide open door, just outside of the classroom, Daichi stands little rigidly, bento box in hand and lifting it up as a sign.

“Coming!” Ryuu shouts, rummaging through his bag to fish out the sandwich he bought in the supermarket. 

He had planned to make lunch – something fancy, even – to impress Daichi. It just happened that he burned all the eggs, oversalted the rice and accidentally dropped the pot of miso soup on the floor. Watching his sufferings, Saeko-neesan had banned him from the kitchen, forcing him to settle for the sandwich.

Maybe he will have other chances to impress Daichi. His heart jumps to his throat at the thought, and he sprints out of the classroom, only stopping right in front of Daichi.

“Dai-san!” he greets cheerfully.

Daichi returns his smile absent-mindedly. “Hi, Tanaka,” he says. “I… uh… let’s go?”

“Where to?” Ryuu asks. 

He rarely sees Daichi during lunch breaks. The ex-captain hadn’t visited the school cafeteria very often during the school year, therefore Ryuu had always thought he had had some kind of secret hideout to eat. Either that, or he prefers staying in his classroom. Either way, Ryuu wants to know. 

“Do you have a favourite place around school, Dai-san?”

“I… uh. I usually eat in the classroom,” Daichi says, scratching behind his ear. It’s a small, uncertain gesture, resonating with Ryuu. “But you see, there is this bench between the–”

“SNOW!” one of Ryuu’s classmates shouts behind him, and Daichi jumps in surprise. The glasses girl, the president of Ryuu’s class, reprimands him for being so loud. She does that to Ryuu, too. Occasionally.

Ryuu glances out the window of the corridor. Outside the clouds had thickened, and as feathers from torn up pillows, snow started to fall in big, white flakes.

He casts his eyes back on Daichi, who visibly pales looking out the window. His healthy skintone turns into slightly greyish, his jaw tightens, and his bento cover crumples in his hand. Ryuu might not be a top student – his own fault, really – but in some things, he is exceptionally sharp. At the moment, he is sure that whatever Daichi had in mind, has been now thwarted by the snow.

“I planned to go out, but–”

“Dai-san,” Ryuu cuts in, and on impulse, he grabs Daichi’s arm. “I know of a place. It’s the best place in school to go when it’s snowing like this. Do you trust me?”

In Daichi’s warm, brown eyes, Ryuu sees anxiety, confusion, panic… but also a glint of relief.

“I trust you.”

Ryuu smiles, and he doesn’t let go of Daichi’s hand for a second while he pulls him through the second years’ corridor and down the main hall. There, behind the auditorium, is a hidden staircase that mostly only the janitor uses, leading up to the curtains. Ryuu had discovered this place last year, when he had volunteered to help with the lighting for his class’ drama play for the cultural festival. There, next to the reflectors and ropes, is a small storage room, window facing the running track and the mountain behind.

“Sometimes, when I feel that the world is too big, too fast and too loud, I come up here,” he says, ushering Daichi in, dusting off two bigger wooden crates for them to sit down on. “Whenever I feel… afraid of what happens next, I sit down for a while, and look at the students down on the field. They look so small from up here, going on about their daily lives. It makes me feel that I must be just as small, and the problem I have might actually be not as big as I perceive it.”

“Hn,” Daichi nods, eyes fixated on the field which turns white rapidly under the heavy snowfall. “This place is good.”

“Right? I know what I’m talking about,” Ryuu says, opening his sandwich.

It’s the sound of the plastic wrapper that draws Daichi’s attention. “You only eat that?” he asks, concern tangible in his voice.

“Ah,” Ryuu says, hands fiddling with the wrapper. “I wanted to make food myself, but apparently I’m a mess in the kitchen when I’m nervous…”

“Yeah,” Daichi agrees, “me too.” 

He undoes his bento wrapper, revealing a three layered box akin to the one Saeko-neesan tends to use when they go sakura-watching and decide to throw a picnic. 

“I usually make food as my mom is busy with my siblings in the mornings, but this morning I just couldn’t… I seemed to drop everything,” Daichi laughs, “in the end my mom handled everything.”

He scratches his head, and maybe it’s the different light, but Ryuu finally remembers where this movement had etched into his memory first – it was that one time he and Daichi collided during the Spring High preliminaries. It was the exact same move Daichi had made upon seeing Ryuu after the match. Nervous. Uncertain.

“It’s a lot,” Daichi continues, lifting the first layer off, revealing a variety of side dishes. “So... we could share?”

Ryuu holds his breath, momentarily overcome by how cute Daichi is, before he takes an in-depth, inspecting look at the contents of the bento. “I’m not gonna lie, that fried chicken looks really good, Dai-san.”

“My mom’s chicken is the best,” Daichi chuckles. He pops a small plastic jar open – the scent of sweet chili filling the room – and lifts one bite-sized chicken up with his chopsticks, dips it in the sauce and holds it out to Ryuu carefully, with his left hand under it to catch any drippings. “Here,” he says.

Ryuu’s heart swells. “Ah,” he opens his mouth, and it makes him happier than anything to see Daichi, flustered, almost dropping the chicken before he safely delivers the bite to Ryuu’s lips. Ryuu finds it laughable, really, just how excited one simple gesture can make him, even though they had done so many erotic things before. He takes the chicken from the chopsticks and takes his time chewing on the food, savoring all its flavour before swallowing. “Delicious!” he exclaims, smile spreading wide on his face, along with the flush of red on Daichi’s.

Ryuu looks and looks, he can’t get enough of seeing Daichi’s blush.

“I was so stupid to think that fooling around will be satisfactory,” he says.

Daichi turns from embarrassed to confused in a second, eyes widening in surprise.

“I really panicked back there, when you looked so sad and said that you hadn’t really lived your high school life to the fullest,” Ryuu continues, reaching for Daichi’s free hand. “I was so frantic to help you, but in the end, I never really got it right, did I?”

“In the end…?”

“Why don’t we stop fooling around, Dai-san?” Ryuu asks. 

The chopsticks drop into the bento box, disturbing a few grains of rice along the way. “Do you want us to stop?” Daichi asks, his voice higher pitched than normal.

“Yeah,” Ryuu nods, and he discards his sandwich on top of a nearby box to reach out for Daichi’s other hand, too. “If you were to go out with me for real, instead.”

“Oh!” Daichi exclaims. “You meant it like that! Damn it, Tanaka, don’t scare me like that!” he huffs, shoulders sinking. “For a moment I thought you wanted to break up with me.”

“I would never break up with you, unless you asked me, of course…”

“I wouldn’t ask,” Daichi says, glancing from their hands to Ryuu’s face. “I love you, Tanaka.”

“Thank God,” Ryuu replies, and a sigh he didn’t even know he had been holding in leaves his lips. “I love you, too.”

“I thought… then I hoped… then I got myself overthinking things,” Daichi shrugs, never finishing a sentence. Ryuu squeezes his hand, heart bursting, to encourage him. “I had planned to ask you out for a while, but the words just never came.”

Suddenly his face is somber.

Ryuu gulps down hard, trying to calm down his strongly beating heart. He knows now, the whole ‘he would be fine with just fooling around’ had been the biggest of lies. He had loved Daichi since forever, and ever since their first kiss, he had wanted to be Daichi’s boyfriend. Although, now that he  _ is _ , he feels fairly unprepared for the wave of feelings crashing down the shore of his heart.

“I’m sorry,” Daichi says then.

“Don’t be,” Ryuu hushes.

“I was a coward.”

“Me too.”

“Oh, Tanaka, you don’t understand, I should’ve been able to solve this, the way I went about it was just so wrong, I slipped and then I just let things happen, and I may have even hurt you.” He moves his hands, so they come around Ryuu’s caging them in a feather-light touch. “I  _ knew  _ that you might requite my feelings, but I was stalling, and…”

“Dai-san,” Ryuu searches Daichi’s eyes until he confirms that he has Daichi’s undivided attention before he continues. “I was not any better myself. I suggested this whole scenario, because I thought… I thought that maybe I could chain you to myself using my body, and eventually you might fall for me. I was so laughably dumb. Please forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, you didn’t do anything wrong, it was all me–”

“It was the both of us,” Ryuu argues. “We were both terrible. We both hid behind a scheme, blind to each other’s feelings or our own. But we are finally on the same page, aren’t we? I love you. And you love me?”

“I do.”

“Then what about… let’s say, consider the past two weeks as practice?” Ryuu asks. “Trial and blunder, or however you say it.”

“Trial and error,” Daichi says, almost reflexively, caressing Ryuu’s hands in his.

“Boyfriends?” Ryuu offers.

“Absolutely,” Daichi says, finally breaking into a smile.

Ryuu leans close, pressing a peck on Daichi’s lips. It’s sweet but short, familiar yet new – as if they were long lost lovers who kissed for the first time after they had gotten reincarnated.

“I love you,” Ryuu whispers. “I love you so much. Thank you for loving me too.”

Daichi blinks at him wordlessly for a second before he leans in and presses a kiss on Ryuu’s forehead. “How could I not love you?”

“I hope you’re unable to not love me.”

“Tanaka, you should be a national treasure,” Daichi laughs. “I hope you know that.”

“I am the ace of the team which won Nationals,” Ryuu grins in reply, making Daichi snort.

“Confident, I see,” Daichi says with that scheming smile of his that opponent teams had come to fear at Nationals. “Not to argue with you, but the ace at the time when we won Nationals happened to be Asahi.”

“Then, I just have to win it again, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Will I be rightfully a national treasure then?”

Daichi nods, then, cupping Ryuu’s chin with one hand he adds: “In my eyes, you already are.”

The sudden compliment catches Ryuu off guard, and he whines, reddening, as he grabs up his sandwich to hide behind it. 

“Dai-san, no fair. You’re too smooth.”

Daichi pushes his hand out of the picture to give him a kiss. “I try,” he says. “I fumbled enough already.”

Discarding his poor sandwich again, Ryuu brings his hands up to both sides of Daichi’s face, holding him firmly. He chases Daichi’s mouth, pressing plush little pecks on it before he lingers for longer, tongue darting out to trace Daichi’s upper lip. Daichi opens up to him with a muffled moan, and Ryuu kisses him with all his built-up feelings: the longing of a crush, the frustration of a lover, the happiness of the boyfriend all crushing down on him at once. His hands sink into Daichi’s hair, and he tugs on it, gently, with all the practice and routine they had accumulated in the two weeks of their heated, twisted play of ‘just fooling around’. His tongue slides over the top of Daichi’s mouth, and Daichi slides a hand behind Ryuu’s neck, thumb gently swiping up his nape.

Ryuu is about to lose himself and succumb entirely to the sensations – of Daichi’s skin, his smell, his tongue over his lips – when his stomach growls, louder and more violent than the little room is fit to accommodate.

“Guess you’re hungry?” Daichi breathes, chest heaving.

“It is lunch time,” Ryuu replies as if reminding both of them, “and we haven’t eaten anything.”

“See, don’t let me waste your precious time like this.”

“Kissing you is never a waste of time, Dai-san.”

“Now, which one of us is the smooth one?” Daichi laughs in reply, releasing Ryuu. “What would you like to try next, boyfriend?” he asks, pointing at his bento box.

Ryuu squints, considering his options.

“Can I get another fried chicken? And an egg roll? And maybe a kiss?”

“Food first,” says Daichi firmly. “But definitely, kiss next.”

*

Lunch break ends too soon for Ryuu’s liking, and he finds himself trailing half-step after Daichi. As both of them are a little reluctant to return to their classrooms just yet, they walk slowly; their eyes linger, their hands brush against each other’s at every other step.

Ultimately, they end up on the third years’ corridor, and Daichi says goodbye with a quick, awkward wave.

“Dai-san,” Ryuu starts, grabbing the edge of Daichi’s uniform jacket before he can walk off to his classroom.

“Yes?”

“Uhm. Today. Do you plan to study at the library?” he fiddles around the material in his hand, a little too shy to grab Daichi’s hand in the middle of the corridor. “You see, Neesan’s at home today, and… I know we’ve just decided to go out for real, but I want to introduce you two.”

“I know your sister, Tanaka.”

“Well, yes, but she knows the team captain, not my boyfriend,” Ryuu replies, blushing immediately. His only consolation in this obviously humiliating scene – he is, after all, clinging onto the clothes of an upperclassman while being obviously flustered for everyone to see – is that Daichi’s face is just as bright a shade of red.

“If you say it like that,” Daichi says, “then I think I must go.”

“Yes!”

“In return,” Daichi continues, his firm voice putting a stopper on Ryuu’s little victory dance, “you have to meet my parents. In fact… would your sister mind, if I introduced myself another day? I know I must seem terribly selfish, as I have been abusing the chance that her absence gave us… but my little siblings leave for a ski camp tomorrow, and I would like to introduce you to my whole family.”

If possible, Ryuu’s face heats up even more, ears burning up so hard he thinks they must fume. 

If they were not in the middle of a corridor, he would most certainly pull Daichi in a warm embrace, kissing his dumb, stupid face into oblivion. But they are, and a few of the students have already spotted their little awkward parade.

“I… I will let my sister know that I’ll come home late, then.”

“I’m sure my father can give you a lift back,” Daichi offers.

“How could I impose on–”

“Not imposing. You’re my boyfriend. You’re family.”

Ryuu blushes all the way down to his chest. “No fair,” he mumbles. “You’re way too smooth, Dai-san.”

“Am I?” Daichi asks back, then, taking a quick look around, he lifts his empty bento box up to shield them from any curious eyes and gives Ryuu a short, sweet kiss. 

“You definitely are.”

*

“Oy, Tanaka,” Ennoshita shouts, concern clear in his voice.

Ryuu feels the pain three seconds later, a slow, numbing ache over his left forehead.

It’s been quite some time since he received one of Kageyama’s serves literally head-on.

“Are you alright?” Ennoshita runs up to him, supporting him as he stands.

“Never better,” Ryuu replies, massaging the fast growing bump on his head. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“Yeah, no worries,” the newly appointed captain says, shooing away the worried swarm of first years. Kageyama takes the longest, turning back for a third time to ensure that no permanent damage has been caused by him at the expense of ‘Karasuno’s current ace’.

Nishinoya shouts for a change of members and urges for Ennoshita to help Ryuu off the court. The captain gives him a grateful huff, walking off with Ryuu by his side.

“You sure everything’s fine?” Ennoshita asks. “Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai leave for a second, and we have a player on the ground already…”

“I’m good, really, not seeing double or anything,” Ryuu ensures. “I was just a little distracted back there.”

“Distracted, huh?” Ennoshita asks, suspicious glance in his eyes. “Does it have anything to do with Daichi-san?”

Ryuu blushes, thinking back on the gruelling study sessions led by Ennoshita, where Ryuu accidentally outed himself once, whining how much better it would be if Dai-san was also sitting with the second years. Ennoshita cornered him afterwards, because he never missed a detail, not like the other three who had been too busy suffering to pay attention to Ryuu’s whining. Ryuu did admit to his crush back then, and of course, Ennoshita would remember, because he just has to remember everything all the time, especially the most embarrassing stuff.

“Uh,” he scratches his nose nervously now, looking into his captain’s constantly sleepy-looking eyes. “I guess?”

“Did you do something stupid?” Ennoshita asks.

Ryuu thinks back on the whole ordeal; he finds that him proposing fooling around, and then the following ambiguity of not-quite-friends with frequent benefits definitely belongs in the 'something stupid' category. But also, it is not something he would want to dump onto his captain – Ennoshita has his plate full as it is with Hinata and Tsukishima’s raging rivalry and sexual tension, as well as Kageyama’s budding crush on Yamaguchi.

“I… we had lunch together today, and we are officially boyfriends now. Dai-san and I.”

“Oh,” Ennoshita comments. “So fast.”

“We have been um… meeting up quite frequently lately,” Ryuu adds as explanation.

“I knew of your ‘arrangement’,” Ennoshita nods, expression unfazed – only the small wince of his lips telling on his possible discomfort. “Daichi-san told me.”

“What?”

“He came to me yesterday, asking me about you,” Ennoshita adds. “When he first told me what you guys were doing I got quite angry on your behalf. I knew of your crush, and… he seemed to know about it, too, so I thought he was using you at first. Then, after talking to him, I realized that he was afraid of hurting you. Still I’m surprised you two managed to smooth out the rough edges so fast.”

“You got angry on my behalf?” Ryuu asks, eyes sparkling. “You’re a true friend, Ennoshita!”

“Yeah, yeah. Long story short, now you are dating, all is good, so why can’t you focus on volleyball?”

“You don’t understand, I’m just  _ too happy _ to function at the moment–”

“Shut up,” Ennoshita says. “Sit this set out, then join us once you have returned from cloud nine to the human realm, please.”

_ you smell like you, and i smell like you a little, too _

If Daichi is being entirely honest with himself, he has to admit that is nervous about meeting Tanaka Saeko. He didn’t expect himself to be this; he knows her after all. He had seen her plenty of times, during the summer training camp and then before and after matches. He even talked to her once or twice, mostly pleasantries, receiving good luck wishes and promising a good game. But he doesn’t  _ know  _ her. He knows that she is an incredibly supportive big sister – but he doesn’t know whether she is overprotective of her little brother or not. He doesn’t know how she will react to the news of a boyfriend – and he doesn’t even dare to imagine how she would react if she knew that seizing the opportunity provided by her evening shifts, Daichi frequented their home to have sex with her little brother. This last bit, Daichi has absolutely no intention to share with Tanaka Saeko, but he just feels that one day, it will somehow reach her. The thought that he had not been entirely straightforward in his approach to woo Tanaka, and the prospect that Tanaka’s sister might come for his life for it seems purely terrifying. His mind twists and turns the image of the cool sister playing the drums into a real life dragon, towering over him questioning him and berating him for his mistakes, his cowardice and his hesitation.

By the time they reach the Tanaka household nervous sweat had dampened the armpits of his shirt, and he shivers from the smallest gusts of wind. His hand in Tanaka’s had also gone slippery, and he takes not one, but plenty of anxious little glances to check whether his boyfriend minds it.

Tanaka, for the most part, looks happier than ever, bumping his shoulder into Daichi’s on the way, and not letting go of their handhold even if that means he has to maneuver the key into the hole with his non-dominant hand.

The door to the house opens before Daichi for the umpteenth time, but it is the first time that he enters the house with someone already at home. He crosses the doorstep with the high alert of a meerkat, feeling as if someone stole his heart on the way here from school and replaced it with an overexcitedly – or rather, rather panickedly – chirping bird.

He follows Tanaka in, mumbling a greeting under his breath.

“Oh?” comes a familiar voice from the living room, and the next moment Daichi finds himself suffocating in Tanaka Saeko’s embrace. He barely has time to register the attack, Saeko continues with her excited chatter. “Captain-kun, don’t tell me you’re also Boyfriend-kun? Ryuu has been quite mysterious about your person, so I’ve been wondering… but of course, you are! Who else could it be?” Saeko asks, releasing Daichi from her death grip.

_ Who else _ , Daichi wonders, as the chirping bird in his chest slowly takes the shape of a kettle left on the stove for too long, straight out whistling, rather than beating or chirping at this point. He had never considered it like this, but truly… he had just as much chance to fall for Tanaka, like anyone else from the team. Or an opposing team. Or a classmate of Tanaka’s. Or a random passerby. 

_ Maybe the whole world is in love with Tanaka _ , he comes to his conclusion, scratching the back of his head nervously. 

Suddenly he feels extremely lucky that he is the one Tanaka loves.

The thought somewhat calms him, helping him to get over his overdrive.

“Neesan,” Tanaka whines. “Don’t say things like that!”

“Why?” Tanaka Saeko turns, standing between them with her hands on her hips. “I have eyes, you know! You may have not noticed, but you’ve been ogling Captain-kun a lot during matches!”

“I was only looking at Dai-san because he was the captain,” Tanaka retreats, blushing.

“The glances were not unrequited, though,” his sister winks, walking up to the kitchen with a skip in her steps. “Any refreshments, Boyfriend-kun?”

Daichi looks at this hurricane of a woman, who had seemingly seen through him and his subtle glances with ease. Maybe they were not as subtle as he had hoped.

“Water is fine,” he replies. “And my name is Sawamura Daichi.”

“I know,” she says in a sing-song, and she gives Daichi a glance that almost makes him jump. Instinctively, he fears that Tanaka Saeko knows way more than what she lets on. “But you are also Ryuu’s boyfriend!” she chips then, winking and disappearing into the kitchen. 

Daichi gazes after her dumbfounded.

“Sorry about that, Dai-san,” Tanaka comes up to him, brushing his shoulder lightly. “My sister’s a little energetic.”

“It’s a family trait,” Daichi replies, reaching up to Tanaka’s hand on his shoulder and brushing his thumb over Tanaka’s. “I don’t mind.”

*

Making dinner is a mess, but also a comedy of its own kind. Tanaka and his sister are fighting over who does what, bickering constantly. While they obviously struggle with some tasks; Ryuu breaks eggs with a little too much force, whereas Saeko has trouble chopping up vegetables to a reasonably small size, they are working together surprisingly well. Little clumsy, little overexcited, but full of heart. Very much on-brand for the Tanakas.

For the most part, they don’t let Daichi do anything, no matter how many times he offers his help, feeling increasingly useless sitting at the counter with his glass of water. However, once everything is in the pan and sizzling, the siblings hand Daichi an apron with a floral pattern, and they let him handle the stirring.

“It’s so that if anything drops to the floor, we have someone to blame for it,” Tanaka Saeko explains with a devilish grin, while her brother snickers behind the open fridge door.

“Where is the ketchup, Neesan?” he asks.

“Behind the mayo,” his sister replies.

“Got it!”

Daichi stirs the vegetables for the omurice with the ease and routine of someone who had been making dishes for his little siblings for years.

“I’m impressed,” Tanaka says as he comes up beside him to pour ketchup in the pan, and he leaves a sneaky kiss on Daichi’s cheek before he walks back to his seat.

“Tanaka,” Daichi grumbles softly in reply.

“Yes?” Tanaka perks up, acting all innocent.

“Yeah?” his sister asks at the same time, looking up from her phone.

Daichi looks up, blinking from one sibling to the other. He catches a mischievous glint in Saeko’s eyes, and his stomach churns with bad premonition.

“We are both Tanakas, you know,” Saeko says.

“Yeah, right,” Daichi mumbles. “I meant… the younger sibling.” 

“Ryuu, you mean?” Saeko asks.

“I…” Daichi starts, suddenly realizing his handicap. Apart from the coaches, everyone in the volleyball team had known him as Daichi – therefore Tanaka had always been calling him on a first name basis – but he had always called Tanaka ‘Tanaka’. He had never called him Ryuunosuke, let alone Ryuu – not even in their most intimate moments.

Guilt rushes through his veins, cold and marring like acid. In fact, it was probably insensitive of him. He takes a mental note down the list of things that make him a horrible boyfriend.

His grip tightens around the spatula, stirring the vegetables with force.

He has done so many awful things to Tanaka… there is so much to correct.

“No need to be so pushy, Neesan,” he hears Tanaka’s voice, defending him.

“No, your sister is entirely right,” Daichi says. He stirs the fry once, twice. He opens his mouth then closes it, gulping down hard.

Strange, how the smallest things come so hard sometimes.

“Ryuu–ryuunosuke.”

He hates himself the moment he stutters, but while Tanaka Saeko snickers, her little brother reddens as a ripe tomato, and the shine in his eyes makes all the embarrassment Daichi feels worth it.

“D–aissan!” Tanaka cries, launching himself at Daichi and hugging him suddenly.

“Hold on, I can’t cook like this!” he complains, but Tanaka doesn’t let go.

“Say it again,” he says, so close to Daichi’s ears that he is thankful for the apron for hiding his front.

“Ryuunosuke,” Daichi sighs.

“I know right? He has a damn long name,” Saeko laughs. “So I shortened it to Ryuu when we were kids,” she walks up, ruffling his brother’s buzzcut. “Yuu picked up on it almost immediately once he heard it. It’s quite sad, it was so funny to see him in that small body, puffing his chest out as he said Ryuunosuke, Ryuunosuke all the time. Good old days. We called him Pocket Manly.”

Daichi snorts at that, thankful for Saeko lightening the mood.

“I’m sure he would be happy if you called him Ryuu, too, Boyfriend-kun,” Saeko says then nodding, hand waving vaguely in the direction of the boy draped over Daichi.

“I like the sound of Ryuunosuke in Dai-san’s voice,” Tanaka hums contently. “I wonder how Ryuu sounds.”

_ You’re my boyfriend. _

Daichi sighs, pulling the vegetables off the stove. He really hates how sometimes he can speak so big, but in situations where it really matters, he has a knot in his throat.

“Alright,” he says, and he clears his throat as he smiles at Tanaka. “Ryuu then.”

His boyfriend gives him the loudest ever smooch on his forehead, while Saeko snorts in the background.

_ You’re family.  _

*

After dinner, they all make their way to the living room, and Daichi realizes that no matter how many times he had been here, he had never really stayed in this room long enough to look around. The Tanakas are wild and energetic, and it reflects in this room too, with bright curtains and bold decorations. Saeko hops down in a big, black armchair as soon as they enter the room, forcing his little brother and Daichi to take the red sofa.

Daichi smiles as he looks at his boyfriend, fidgeting in the seat beside his, suddenly shy and careful not to touch Daichi, even though he had been so blatantly showing off his affection in the kitchen just a while ago. It makes Daichi reach out to grab Ryuu’s hand and pull it into his own lap, thumb caressing over the back of Ryuu’s wrist gently.

As for his own nerves, Daichi finds that they have calmed down throughout the dinner. Saeko had not once reminded him of taking care of her little brother; she did not threaten him not to hurt Ryuu, nor did anything else that would paint her as overprotective. Still, Daichi could feel her keen eyes watching him all night, and he noticed that she noticed even the smallest of his gestures towards Ryuu, rewarding him with little, concealed smiles. Tanaka Saeko seems to be happy for his brother’s happiness and to have accepted Daichi without a hint of doubt or suspicion.

The sofa is comfortable, so is Ryuu’s proximity as he shyly leans his shoulder against Daichi’s side. The food was good, and Saeko turned out to be a wicked conversational partner. Daichi, contrary to his initial fears, finds himself reluctant to move.

“It’s getting late,” he sighs, eyes on the wall clock.

“Do you need to go home?” Ryuu asks, lifting his head to look Daichi in the eye. He has such a perfect puppy-eyed look on his face, if Daichi hadn’t known him he would think it’s intentional.

“Why don’t you sleep here?” Saeko suggests. “We could make popcorn and watch some old movies.”

“Right!” Ryuu brightens up immediately, clasping Daichi’s hand in both of his, bringing it between them. “What do you say?”

“Give a call to your parents,” Saeko says. “Explain that you have a chaperone looking out for you, so you won’t be doing anything bad, just watch a few movies and probably fall asleep on the couch. Tomorrow is a Sunday, we can all sleep in.”

“Hn,” Daichi hums. The offer sounds way too enticing to refuse. He had not spent the night too frequently at a friend’s house before; plus, he is sure that his mom will be a little nervous, because Ryuu is not simply a friend, he is a  _ boyfriend  _ – but Daichi has the benefit of being a son, which means his parents are generally more lenient towards him than his little sister. “Sounds good,” he agrees then. “Let me call them.”

Ryuu literally vibrates by his side while he makes the phone call, squeezing his hand like there’s no tomorrow, and Daichi makes it short, afraid of the wellbeing of his fingers if he goes into a lengthy conversation with his mom.

“She said it was no problem,” he finally says, hanging up the phone.

“Sounds like it’s movie night!” Saeko exclaims, throwing her hands in the air. “Alright, let me check on our stock of snacks real quick, you two choose a movie until then!”

She stands from her seat and walks out the room with a skip to her steps, humming something off-tune.

“Dai-san,” Ryuu says once they are alone. “I’m so happy you stay for the night,” then, leaning close, he whispers into Daichi’s ears, “even if we don’t do anything.”

“Yeah,” Daichi laughs back, and he can’t help but steal a short, sweet kiss from the lips of his boyfriend. “Me too.”

“What do you want to see, Dai-san?”

“What do you have?” he asks back.

“Everything,” Ryuu grins, standing up and pulling Daichi with him to a shelf full of movies. “We have most of the stuff on Blu-Ray, Neesan loves when the picture is sharp!”

Daichi runs his eyes over the titles, amazed by the selection.

“You were not bluffing when you said you have everything,” he says, running his fingers through a few titles.

“Neesan said we should watch old movies, but we can watch whatever you want,” Ryuu adds. “You are the guest today, so…”

“Can we watch this?” Daichi asks, pulling a case out of line by the corner. 

“Pacific Rim?” Ryuu asks with eyes shining bright.

“I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while,” Daichi says.

“Good choice!” Ryuu agrees excitedly. “I really love this movie, it has everything, cool giant robots, alien invaders, cool fight scenes… what?”

“Sorry,” Daichi says, stifling his chuckle. “I was just thinking about how much I love when you talk about something you love.”

Ryuu blushes deep and vivid, a blatant red against the white of his pullover. “I… me too,” he mumbles. “I love Dai-san the most when you talk about something you love.”

“Really?” Daichi teases him, moving an arm around Ryuu’s waist.

“I fell for you at first sight when you said we will make it to Nationals,” Ryuu admits, lowering his head. “You were so cool…”

“You are always so cool,” Daichi replies, pressing his lips on Ryuu’s forehead. “I wonder what had I done in a previous life to be so lucky in this one.”

“Ugh, cheesy” Ryuu says, sticking his tongue out. Daichi leans in and captures it in a kiss, sucking on it softly. Ryuu melts into the kiss, opening his mouth wider, and he brings his arms up around Daichi’s shoulders. “I never expected you to be so smooth and cheesy, Dai-san.”

“I never expected you to be such a great kisser,” Daichi banters softly.

“Noyassan was a great teacher,” Ryuu guffaws, and Daichi can’t help but laugh along, having heard about Nishinoya’s crazy kissing antics. There goes the mood, and for one Daichi is thankful for Ryuu to untangle himself from him before he lost his control entirely and pushed Ryuu up against the wall for his sister to walk in on them.

“By the way… haven’t your sister disappear quite a while ago?”

“Right,” Ryuu says. “Let me check on her.”

“I’ll come with you,” Daichi offers immediately. “If something happened to her, you may need help.”

“Why would anything happen to her?” Ryuu dismisses the idea.

“I don’t know, why else would it take so long to grab snacks?” Daichi argues as they cross the hall.

The kitchen, they find empty, but for a note left on the counter.

> _ Takinoue called, he asked me to drop by _
> 
> _ I’ll be out for the night _
> 
> _ Be bad,  _
> 
> _ – Saeko♡ _

“I think… she went out,” Ryuu says, flattening the note across the counter absent-mindedly.

“I have a feeling your sister has set us up,” Daichi comments. “She invited me to stay, saying that we will watch movies together, then disappeared, leaving only a note behind?”

“Ah, she’s always been like that…”

“It seems way too fishy,” Daichi says, cupping Ryuu’s face.

“Alright, she might have done it on purpose,” Ryuunosuke admits, ears burning. “She has a tendency to meddle.”

“Such a wonderful sister you have.”

“Dai-san, please don’t tease me.”

“So?” Daichi asks, lifting Ryuu’s chin up. “What do we do now? Get those snacks ourselves and watch the movie?”

*

They really do watch the movie – all the while it goes dark outside, and a light rain starts to pour. They climb the stairs, struggling a little as they never quite let go of each other, hands grabbing into pieces of clothing hungry for the touch of skin. Ryuu opens the door to his room and they basically fall in, tripping over each other’s legs. They stay, splayed all over the floor with painful elbows and knees, in a fit of laughter that never seems to be dying. They lay there, heads turned up towards the window, watching the rain patter away on the glass. They reach out slowly, fingers dragging over each other’s skin; the laughter dies, and they are lost in each other’s eyes before Ryuu raises, leaning forward for a kiss.

For a second, Daichi is lost to the sensation, letting himself be led by the guidance of Ryuu. He closes his eyes, opening his lips as an offering for his boyfriend to deepen the kiss, all the while raking his hands up under Ryuu’s pullover, dragging his fingernails along his muscular back.

“Argh,” Ryuu growls into the touch, and he leaves Daichi’s mouth to nibble at his chin and down his neck and collarbone.

“Hey, Ryuu?” Daichi asks, words breathy. “Do you want to… top today?”

Daichi immediately regrets his question as Ryuu stops his ministrations. He had tried once before to initiate this conversation – back then, Ryuu misunderstood, and thought Daichi wanted him to ride him, and felt really embarrassed when Daichi whispered him an explanation. Daichi has not mentioned the idea ever since, and Ryuu has shown no signs that he wanted any change in their relationship. But that was back when they were both insecure, uncertain about each other’s feelings.

Now, the Ryuu looking down at him has a shine to his eyes that looks hopeful.

“Are you sure, Dai-san?” he asks softly. 

“Yes.”

“I’ve… I’ve never done it before. I might suck.”

“I want to be the judge of that,” Daichi smiles, reaching up to cup Ryuu’s face. “If you also want it.”

Ryuu smiles down on him, backlit by the lamp on the ceiling, blush bright red around his ears. “I’ve been thinking about… doing it,” he says. “But I don’t know if I’m any good, Dai-san…” 

“Are you afraid?” Daichi asks, rolling his thumb up and down Ryuu’s cheek gently.

Ryuu shakes his head and he leans into Daichi’s touch. “I’m just… I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m a tough guy,” Daichi laughs.

He doesn’t get a reply. Ryuu watches him, eyes shining mysteriously, before he dips his head down, pressing a hot, short kiss on Daichi’s lips. Daichi returns it in kind, hand travelling from Ryuu’s face to his nape, pulling him closer. Ryuu moves closer, fisting one hand in Daichi’s shirt.

“On the bed,” he says, his voice barely a whisper. “I want to do you on the bed, Dai-san.”

“Is it not good, just staying here?”

“Too rough,” Ryuu shakes his head. “I don’t want your back to hurt later.”

“Such a considerate boyfriend I have,” Daichi laughs.

“Also, I can’t reach the lube from here.”

Daichi snorts, but gives in, letting go of Ryuu’s neck so he can stand up and pull Daichi up too. They dance to the bed in a strange mix of jittery jive and elderly-home-tango, eager to reach their destination but even more eager to get as many kisses in on the way as possible.

Daichi loses his shirt – and the flawlessness of his skin on his chest – halfway to the bed, as Ryuu decides it’s the perfect time to blow a raspberry there; his pants come undone at the foot of the bed, and he kicks his boxer shorts off quickly afterwards. Ryuu, who has years of celebratory volleyball stripping behind him, does the usual stuff where he gets rid of his clothing before Daichi can blink twice, and suddenly they are laying down, side by side over Ryuu’s bedsheets.

“Are you sure?” Ryuu asks, one final confirmation accompanied by a trail of feather-light kisses down Daichi’s torso. He hovers above Daichi’s navel, sending an almost hungry glance down Daichi’s erect dick. “I could do something else, you know.”

“I know,” Daichi sighs, covering his eyes with his arm. Lewd, that’s what Ryuu is; too lewd for Daichi to function. “But I want you,” he growls, as Ryuu actually sneaks a kiss to the bundle of nerves on the underside of his cock, “inside me.”

“Here?” Ryuu comes around, grazing a lube-covered finger up Daichi’s inner thigh and on the inside of his butt cheek.

“Ugh,” comes the reply.

Ryuu laughs, his deep voice resonating in Daichi’s ears. “Relax, Dai-san.”

_ Will you relax for me? _

Tasting his own medicine, Daichi finds it less bitter than the saying would let on. He shudders when Ryuu’s finger enters him, the sensation weird, but not entirely unpleasant. Ryuu’s movements are precise and calculated; there’s no sign of his previous meekness or uncertainty.

“There,” he whispers, “do you think you can get used to it, Dai-san?”

“Hngh.”

“Shall we try the real thing then?”

“Yeah,” Daichi whispers.

Ryuu kisses him slowly, and Daichi’s breath hitches as he hears the bed creaking under Ryuu as he positions himself.

“Relax,” Ryuu chuckles, hot breath caught between their lips. “We can’t do this unless you breathe.”

“Where have I heard this before?” Daichi snorts, opening his eyes a crack to look up.

Ryuu grins down at him and he leans down, nuzzling Daichi’s shoulder. “Much better,” he praises. He peppers a line of short kisses up Daichi’s neck, lingering around his chin, before he finally enters the tip, eliciting a surprised noise from Daichi.

Ryuu proves to be gentle and slow, never pushing Daichi over his boundaries and always waiting for him to adjust. Once he's entered Daichi fully, he starts to move, aiming to please rather than to be pleased himself. Daichi watches, from behind half-mast eyes, the concentration on Ryuu’s face, the sweat building up around his temple, and he tugs his face down to press a kiss on his lips. Ryuu is so much sweeter being on top than he is when he bottoms, that Daichi finds it hard to compare the impatient brat Ryuu can sometimes be with the mellow lover he is now. 

He feels the pleasure build up in him in a similar, yet entirely different way than usual. His whole body aches with a pain that’s sweet and heavy. The feeling that’s usually focused at his cock travels up his spine and reverberates in his entire body.

Ryuu builds up a steady rhythm, peppering Daichi with kisses and stimulating his dick at the same time, and Daichi comes, eventually, with a shuddering sigh breaking on his lips. He feels giddy, brain hazy and body heavy with the aftermath of his orgasm. He barely registers that Ryuu had finished himself with the help of his hand, before he finds his boyfriend’s face up close against his own again.

“You’re amazing, Dai-san,” Ryuu mumbles, fingers stroking Daichi’s face gently.

“Hn,” Daichi hums in reply, nuzzling against Ryuu's palm. 

“I love you so much,” they say at the same time, like two clocks ticking the same second. One is not the echo of the other; their voices meld and mingle, becoming one, polyphonous sound.

Ryuu moves first, fast on his feet, darting to the bathroom. He returns shortly with a wet towel to help them clean up; Daichi only makes it hard for him, trying to distract him with his attempts to kiss him stupid. Ryuu, however, is very focused in his ministrations, and Daichi finds his serious expression too cute to stare at for long.

They change into Ryuu’s pajamas, which they split into two: Ryuu gets the pants, while Daichi pulls on the long-sleeved shirt with his boxer shorts. They cuddle up under the blanket, facing each other, with legs entwined and arms around each other. Daichi ducks his head, resting it in the hollow between the pillow and Ryuu’s shoulder, and Ryuu pulls him close, pressing his lips against Daichi’s forehead.

Outside, the rain picks up, hitting against the glass in big, fat drops, drumming a lullaby.

_ you smell like the distance between us;  _ _   
_ _ like never-ending fields and mountains and a fifty-minutes bus-ride _

It’s raining like nobody’s business. The drops fall onto the glass beside Ryuu’s head, then roll away fast, almost horizontally. They paint the outside world in a whirlwind of dirty greens and muddy browns, and even if Ryuu knows the route by heart by now, he has no idea where they are.

They leave a stop, and another behind; more and more people take the bus, many of the students wearing their first jacket over the school uniform. 

_ It’s almost winter again, _ Ryuu ponders, as the window beside him slowly fogs up.

With their win in the preliminaries, the Spring Tournament is upon them. Following their senpais' stubbornness, none of the third years have graduated – Ryuu even managed to hold onto his ace title, though Hinata, and surprisingly Tsukishima had also put up a good fight. The first years, if possible, are even more chaotic than the Freak Duo had been, and they are a  _ lot _ ; Coach Ukai was expecting more freshman after they had won Nationals, but not ten at the same time.

Ryuu smiles, checking the time on his phone when he notices a new message.

[When are you coming? Already on the bus?]

His smile widens, a rosy tint spreading across his face, which – contrary to those who had just boarded the bus – is not thanks to the chilly wind, but more to the fact that within a few minutes, he will see his boyfriend. He types away, making typos and deleting everything three times before he finally sends a reply.

[Almost there.]

[I’m waiting at the station.]

[Dai-san. Do you have an umbrella?]

[Knowing you, I brought two.]

_ you smell like home _

March arrives with a strong wind that makes cherry blossom petals rain on the students and relatives gathered after the graduation ceremony. Ryuu poses with Noya, Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita for a group picture; a sobbing Saeko struggles to take the photo.

Daichi had originally planned to watch them from afar and let them have their fun, but when the fifth attempt fails at Saeko’s shaky hands, he can’t help but step in.

“Allow me to help,” he walks up to Saeko.

“Daichiii,” Saeko weeps instead of a greeting, throwing herself in his arms. “I was wondering where you are!”

“Daichi-san!”

“You came!”

“You’re here!”

“Daissan!”

“I’m here, I’m here,” he smiles. “Ryuu, can you take your sister from me, so I can take your photo?”

“Of course!” the boy grins, pulling his sister into the picture.

Saeko looks a perfect mess, but the third years quickly cast a smile on her face. Daichi manages to catch the moment perfectly – Kinoshita with eyes blown way too wide, Nishinoya with his face puffed up like blowfish and Narita mimicking his little spikes with his fingers, Ennoshita laughing into his hands, Ryuu and Saeko laughing in the exact same angle.

The boys continue to pose, they even take off their jackets and roll up their sleeves to take one flexing, earning an exasperated sigh from Ennoshita, and a sharp remark from Tsukishima walking up to them.

Soon, Tsukishima is roped into taking over the role of the photographer, and Daichi is pulled into the mess, making moderately funny faces. Then Nishinoya pulls Narita and Kinoshita away, and Ennoshita trails after them, leaving only Saeko, Ryuu and Daichi in Tsukishima’s care, who asks them to pose for one last picture more out of politeness than goodwill. For the occasion, Ryuu decides to plant the biggest, most theatrical smooch to Daichi’s right cheek, and Saeko mirrors him on the left.

Tsukishima only winces a little, before he could make any snarky remarks, however, Hinata pops up beside him, grabbing his hand and pulling him away so fast he barely has time to hand the camera back to Saeko.

“So… that is a thing?” Daichi asks, only for Ryuu to hear.

“Well,” his boyfriend drawls, “officially, no. Everyone knows they are together, though.”

They laugh – Ryuu casually leans over Daichi’s shoulder and Daichi drapes his hand around Ryuu’s waist – until their eyes meet and they both suddenly go silent.

“If you want a kiss, I suggest we go someplace a little more private,” Daichi says quickly.

“You can read my mind, Dai-san.”

“I know.”

They don’t walk far, seeking coverage behind one of the cherry trees to share a sweet, lingering kiss.

“It’s been so long,” Ryuu breathes.

“We met literally yesterday,” Daichi says.

“It was so long ago.”

“Yeah, right, you doof.”

Daichi plants another, quick peck on Ryuu’s lips before he reaches into his pocket, lifting up a keychain with a pair of keys on it.

“I know you have a key to the room already, but I thought if you really wanted to ride that bike around town you might need one to the garage as well,” he says. “Also, please attend the after party with everyone, and only start packing your stuff tomorrow.”

“What?” Ryuu asks, eyes widening.

“We talked about moving together after you graduate…”

“And you said you will consider it! But then you said nothing else.”

“My bad. I was busy making space for your stuff.”

“Holy… Dai-san!”

“Yeah?”

“Does this mean that you want to continue fooling around?” Ryuu asks jokingly.

“With you?” Daichi asks back, raising to the challenge. “I wouldn’t mind fooling around for a little longer.”

_ we smell like “maui sunset” because you bought the wrong fabric softener  _ _   
_ _ and it’s horrendous but honestly i don’t care because we smell the same _

The alarm clock's beeps are amazingly aggressive and incredibly loud. Ryuu whines at their sound, turning in his sleep and snuggling up to his boyfriend to bury his head in the warmth of Daichi's shoulder.

Daichi pulls him into a hug, sighing as he turns the alarm off.

”Morning, sunshine,” he murmurs, kissing the top of Ryuu's head.

”Ten more minutes,” Ryuu complains, hooking his leg over Daichi's to capture him before he can flee.

”We will be late.”

”It's our own engagement ceremony,” Ryuu argues. ”They oughta wait.”

Daichi laughs in return, but his hands find Ryuu's thigh and push it off his waist. ”Alright, I'll be honest, I really need to pee.”

”That's fair,” Ryuu says, untangling himself from his boyfriend. ”Wake me up when you return?”

”I will,” Daichi replies, and he presses a kiss on Ryuu's forehead before he slips out from under the horribly sweet, floral scented sheets.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Nana: "Then they just kept fooling around forever and ever, amen."


End file.
